


Winter Whumperland

by IronSteel



Category: Kluniverse, Original Work
Genre: Brotherhood, Constant betrayal, Duke needs a hug, F/M, Gen, Original work - Freeform, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:00:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28788348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronSteel/pseuds/IronSteel
Summary: Duke Parker, his brother Dallas, and their friends go on a weekend retreat to their winter house. But as Duke’s friends disappear one by one, how can he stop it before a threat that he could never imagine makes him suffer.
Relationships: Dallas Parker/Heather Garrick, Duke Parker & Annie MacTavish, Duke Parker & Dallas Parker, Duke Parker & Fred Shepherd, Duke Parker & Joey Price, Duke Parker & Kat Riley, Sarah Mason/Mike Woods
Comments: 18
Kudos: 2





	1. Deck The Halls

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Everyone!!!!!
> 
> My name is IronSteel and I’m super excited because this is my first ever fandom. As a first time writer, I would love any constructive criticism and your reactions to the story, all comments are welcome. This is book “0” in an original series that I’ve been working on for many years, The Kluniverse.

“Dad, it’ll be fine, its just 2 days and there’s not gonna be any drugs or drinking,” Duke Parker said to his father, who was on the phone with him while he was driving on the highway. “It’ll be fine, we’re all good Christians, we’ll just hang out and then head home for the week of Christmas. Ok, ok, I’ll text you when we leave. Alright love you too.” He hung up the phone. 

“Good little Christians, oh how I love it,” Joey had said, laughing from the backseat. Duke simply just smiled back. He knew his parents wouldn’t let him go if they knew alcohol, girls, and bedtimes after 10:30 would all be present.

“So, is Dallas already up McDonough, or when does he get in?” Annie asked from the passenger seat. 

“Heather and Him have been up there for a few days.” Duke hadn’t seen his brother in months, and was nervous, but also excited to meet his girlfriend, Heather. Dallas had brought up many girls to McDonough Manor before, but this was the first actual girlfriend that Duke was going to meet. Duke wanted to spend a weekend with them for a few weeks now, and so it was decided that they would bring a few friends up to spend the weekend before Christmas at their family’s winter house. 

“Yo Fred, how about them Richmond Storm, 200 rushing yards in one night, they’re a legit contender!” Duke said eagerly to Fred, his college roommate, who was sitting in the back.

“One game, it was was one game Duke. How can you even be excited after their previous games!”

“Ok look, Benny hasn’t had an ideal sophomore season as the shot caller, but come on dude, this, this is the start of a dynasty.”

Kat, who was sitting next to Fred, decided to chime in. “Richmond hasn’t had a winning season in 13 years Duke. Just wait and see, they’ll find away to choke with just three games left, yet again.” She knew her sports better than Duke and Fred realized. Duke could tell Joey and Annie were completely lost, as sports talk wasn’t up either of their sleeves.

“Alright, so when we get to The Manor, there’s 4 bedrooms. I guarantee Heather and Dallas took the master bedroom, and Heather’s sister, Sarah, and her boyfriend took one of the guest rooms, so that’ll leave 2 rooms.

“I’m not sleeping next to any of you, not after my last sleepover. I’m getting my own room!” Joey exclaimed. Dallas figured he was going to say something along those lines. “We’ll just keep it simple, girls in the downstairs room, us guys will go in the room that my dad turned into an office.” With no objections, they soon awaited arrival.

It had been snowing on the mountain for days, and as Duke and his friends arrived at McDonough Manor, the snow was continuing to pick up. The sun was peeking through the clouds, letting the Manor perch on top of the mountain with white surrounding every side. After Duke parked the car, Kat went to the trunk and began handing out everyone’s luggage. As she handed Duke his backpack, they both heard the front door opening. Dallas Parker, with a flannel hoodie, jeans, and boots walked outside with his girlfriend, Heather.

“It’s about time you showed up. We already ate because we assumed one of the resident yetis ate all of you.” Dallas said to the group. None of them had any reaction, except for Heather, who leaned forward, bursting with laughter.

“Yeah, he has a problem with making bad timed jokes and making you want to kill your self even more in awkward situations.” Duke said quietly for only Joey, Kat, Fred, and Annie to hear.

“Duke, I’ve missed you man.” Dallas came in for a hug, to which Duke just stood there, frozen and put his arm half way around Dallas’s shoulder. “Yea man, its been a few months. Maybe it hasn’t been long enough” He replied, as he half jokingly turned towards the car to leave.

“Oh always a jokester. Heather, this is my older brother Duke and his nerdy little friends” 

“Oh my god, its so nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so many great and not so great things about you. Dallas was telling me such a wonderful story about how you both were at Redwood Camp and you two competed over this one girl who....”

“....Alrighty, that’s a great place to stop, I’m gonna go show them their rooms. Heather, great to meet you, all I ask is that I don’t hear you and Dallas tonight”

Duke and his friends walked into the manor and headed for the guest rooms. Joey, Fred, and Duke were unpacking in the office, when Mike knocked on the door. 

“Hey, I’m really sorry to bother you guys, see, I thought about waiting until you guys were done unpacking, but then I got really nervous that Sarah would walk in and find out, and, and, I just.......”

“Buddy its ok,” Duke interrupted. “What’s up, what can we do for?”

“Well, you see, I love Sarah, and she’s just the most amazing thing to ever happen me, and well, I wanna ask her to marry me this weekend. I thought it would be super romantic with all of the snow, but she told me weeks ago that when I propose, that I need to do it in front of her family, but I’m not sure what to do man!”

Joey instantly replied, “Well first of all you need to grow a pair of balls before you decide to ask your girl to marry her,” he said both arrogantly and sarcastically.

“Jesus,” Duke said, with dissatisfaction in his voice has he gave Joey a dirty look, to which he smiled back. Duke tuned back to Mike, “Listen my guy, I’m gonna say this as nicely as possible, I have never met your girlfriend before, so how in the world would I know how you should propose to her.”

“But like, what would you do if you were dating the most amazing girl in the world?”

“Buddy, I’ve never had a long term relationship like that before, none of us have.” Duke turned to Joey and Fred and mouth “sorry” to them. “Just do whatever your heart says”

“My heart is just telling me that I love her,” Mike said as he began to sob. Tears were going down his face. Duke started pushing Mike out, as he was already pissed off at Dallas for making their arrival super award, this was just the tip of the cherry. 

Kat helped Heather and Sarah set up Christmas decorations around the manor. She unpacked rather quickly, she wanted to explore the manor, and felt decorating would accomplish her desire. They grabbed, wreaths, lights, and many glorious ornament and streamers and placed them throughout the manor. Heather looked at Kat, “So how long have you and Duke been dating?”

“What dating? Haha we’re just friends”

Sarah chimed in, “Oh I saw the way you liked at him when you came in through the door. Your eyes couldn’t stop following him.”

“Yea..... because he was showing us where to put our belongings, I had to follow him”

“Ok, so ur saying he’s dating that Annie girl,” Heather replied.

“What no, they’re just friends. I’m pretty sure we are all allowed to just be friends and not have to date.”

“Whatever you say, Juliet,” Heather said, not believing a word she was saying about her feelings. “So where is that Annie girl, I would’ve thought she’d want to decorate with the rest of us girls.”

Kat answered, “She’s in our room writing, I think she wanted time to herself anyway”

Sarah quickly replied, finding the situation funny, she was confused, “Writing what, in her diary? How old does she think she is?” 

“Writing stories I guess. I don’t know. I literally just met her today, cause she goes to school with Duke and Fred. No idea what she does but I don’t think it’s of my concern”

“She really gives me bad vibes, just from looking at her,” Sarah said smugly. She wasn’t too fond of people that she thought were very different than her. Duke then came out of the hallway, with his headphones around his neck, playing a Christmas playlist. 

Heather approached him, “Hey sorry about earlier, I want trying to make anything awkward or anything”

“No worries, it happens, all is forgiven”

Kat looked at him and smiled, “Everything set up ok in the cool kids room?”

“Oh yea, Fred brought is gaming console, so he’s probably gonna play  Medal of Duty all day. Joey actually wanted to just stay down there and watch him play, surprised me.”

“Oh?”

“Yea, I’m just happy to see two of my friends bonding. Any who, I’m making Christmas cookies for after dinner.”

Many hours had passed, and all of the temporary residents of McDonough Manor had spent the rest of the day in different ways. Duke, Kat, Heather, and Sarah made food. Joey watched Fred play video games. Annie stayed in her room. Dallas and Mike drank until they were falling over in laughter. As Duke, Dallas, Mike, Sarah, Kat, and Heather were hanging around by the fireplace in the living room, Annie had come up and went into the kitchen. Duke smiled and looked at her through the bar window.

“Welcome back to society young padawan. I see you have discovered the exotic refrigerator, a very rare specimen.” 

She briefly looked back at at him and smiled, before returning to making her sandwich.

“So like, does ur alien friend talk in Morse or is she deaf?” Heather said abruptly. Most of the room laughed, while Annie didn’t even make any acknowledgement of Heather and continued to make her sandwich. “Behave,” Dallas said to Heather, half serious, half jokingly, but Heather wasn’t having it. She got up and walked into the kitchen, and got in Annie’s face

“Yo bitch, in my house, we use words to describe what’s going on, are you messed up in the head hunny bun?”

Ah shit, she’s gonna die , Duke thought. The entire gang in the living room watched curiously, seeing the Annie freeze, before slowing turning her head and looking Heather dead in the eyes.

“I will fucking rip your tongue out of your pathetically small mouth, shove it so far up your ass that your intestines come out of your nose, and I’ll use them to swing on a tree like I’m Carolina Davis, while your stomach rips in half and I feed the rest of your insides to the jungle animals.” Annie then stormed past Heather, past the group, yelling, “If any of you miserable fuckers that aren’t sleeping in the same room as me, decided to set foot anywhere in that room, I’ll personally do your autopsies at the morgue, and make sure that your skin is turned inside out. She then walked downstairs and slammed the door. 

The entire room was silent for nearly two minutes, while heather was frozen in shock in the kitchen. Dallas then stood up, “Ok, well um, that happened and that makes it a great time for Heather and I to go to bed. We shall see you all tomorrow.” The two said goodnight to the rest of the group. As they walked into the hallway out of the living room, Joey walked in and went up to Duke. “Hey man, I left one of my bags in the car, can I go and grab it?” 

“Yea sure,” He handed Joey his keys. “Make sure to lock it.”

As Joey left, Fred came into the room after playing 6 hours of video games. Mike thought it would be a great idea for the group to play a game before everyone headed off to bed. As Mike began giving suggestions, Sarah began declining them easily.

“Alright, so, there’s this fun game, where you hit the spinner...”

“We are not playing Cocotopia babe, no one here wants to play that little kids game.”

“But babe, its my favorite, its really fun and...”

“If we’re gonna play a game, we might as well play Strip Truth or Dare”

“No babe, not after the last time we played. I felt so embarrassed and all those guys kept staring at you and then they started to...”

“Oh boy, what a lovely story Mikey, but it’s 11:55, and I think it’s time to put a pin in it,” Duke said as he quickly jumped up. He honestly had genuine entertainment watching Mike and Sarah “attempt” to argue. With a fun day of skiiing and more fun festivities, Duke just wanted to go to bed. “I’m hitting the hay, I’ll see y’all all tomorrow.” Kat got up too, “yea I’m honestly super tired too and I’m excited for a fun day tomorrow.” This led Fred to get up as well, to which he simply said, “Same.” As the three of them began leaving the living room, they heard glass break in the kitchen. All three of them tuned their heads, but as they did, they heard Mike begin to scream.

“AHHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHHH FUCK NOOOOOOOOOOO!” 

As they turned their heads again, Mike was gone. Sarah was on the floor, balling her eyes out. “M M M Mike, Mikey, where did you go,” she said softly, choking on her words. They all then jumped as grandfather clock rang as it struck midnight.


	2. Up on the Housetop

Duke ran down the stairs, with Fred and Kat trying to keep up behind him. He could feel the adrenaline kicking inside of him. After he tried to open the locked door, his hand began banging the door frantically. Finally, the knob began turning and the door opened to show a pissed off Annie.

“Did u not understand what I said...”

Duke cut her off, “We gotta go, like, now. Right now, grab your bags.” Fred and Kat raced to grab all of their belongings, as Annie grabbed her back and turned back to Duke.

“What happened, what did one of those miserable.....”

“Mikes gone, probably dead.”

“What,” she said, now fully concerned. “It’s, it’s probably just a prank, I thought no one else lived this far up the mountain.”

“Yea well, we’re leaving, I’m not dealing with any bs”

The four of them walked back up the stairs and passed Sarah, who was still sobbing on the floor. Duke didn’t even bother telling Dallas they were leaving. As Duke opened the door and walked outside, he reached into his pocket to unlock the car.

“My keys, where are my..... Joey. Fuck, Joey, where the fuck did he go,” Duke exclaimed as the four of them saw tracks from his car in the snow, which went straight down the mountain. “Perfect, just fucking perfect. He bailed on us.”

Annie, Kat, and Fred stood a few feet behind Duke, and didn’t know how to react. They all just wanted to go home. Annie approached Duke.

“Come on, lets just go back inside,” she calmly told him.

“Ok,” He said coldly. Betrayal was flying through his mind, and he feeling sick to his stomach, Duke felt that staying the night and leaving with Dallas in the morning would be their best option.

As they were walking in, Kat asked if Duke should go and wake Dallas up. Duke knew his brother was too busy with Heather, and now believing that Mike simply pranked them, he cooked up a plan.

“Alright, here’s my idea,” He examined to the other three. The walked into the living room, where evidently, Sarah must have collected herself and headed off to her room, as they could no longer hear any sulking. “We all head back to the bigger of the two guest rooms. Its 1:09 right now, Dallas will be up by 8:00. So, we will take turns staying awake and watching the door, while the rest of us sleep. Dallas will drive us down to Lynchburg and we’ll figure out a way how to get back to Richmond.” They all agreed. 

After going down the steps and entering the room, Annie decided to take the first shift, while Fred and Kat slept in the two beds, and Duke grabbed a blanket and slept on the floor. Despite Kat and Fred easily falling asleep, Duke just laid there. He could hear the furnace in the basement turning on, but its loud banging didn’t even wake Kat nor Fred. Duke pondered what could have happened to Mike. He knew Dallas would never do such a thing, and Dallas always said that Heather and Mike got along very well.  Maybe it was Sarah , he thought.  She probably found out that Mike wanted to propose, and maybe that was her reaction . He knew that it was too far fetched, but trying to solve the mystery at hand, maybe it could let Duke ease into sleep.

Hours passed and Duke had been phasing in and out consciously, but he felt deprived of any sleep. He turned to see Annie, still awake, sitting in a chair towards the door. She was writing in her notebook, not as vigorously as he’s seen her right. She had her favorite knife on her lap, as Duke knew if any intruder were to even come within a few inches of the door, Annie was ready to strike. Duke stood up and pulled the other desk chair next to her and sat down. She kept writing and didn’t look at him when she said, “Took you long enough.”

“What, you knew I was awake.”

“I could hear your moving constantly.” She then turned her head and looked upon his gaze. “And you look exhausted.”

“Well, stress always keeps me up, and the fact that we have an apparent killer, or possible pranker, on the loose doesn’t seem to be easing that.” He looked down at her book. “Mind if I ask what your writing?”

She closed and picked up her book from her lap. “Observations.” 

“Observations?”

“Yep, every once and a while its nice to just sit back and be the observer. As much as I like feeding into my imagination, writing about how that doofus was swept from his feet and dragged away by what looked to be simply his own shadow, can really be something to observe. The emotion you showed after walking outside, Hell, how exhausted you look write now. Writing about all of that as an observer is a nice step back from deciding the scene yourself.” She paused and opened her book again. “So how long have you known Joey.”

“Like, 7 or 8 years.”

“Do you think he did it? Like that he’s the one responsible for Mike?”

Duke never even consider Joey as a suspect. No one was looking to see who, or what, dragged Mike away. But Duke didn’t believe it.

“Joey paints toys in his free time, I doubt he’s capable of hurting anyone really.”

“So why was the car gone?”

“I, I don’t know. Maybe Joey saw someone enter the manor and went full fight or flight mode and booked it. Maybe he went to go get help, even I’ve thought of just calling the police, but the fact there’s no cell tower for miles really doesn’t allow for that.” His voice had gotten loud enough that Fred was aging up and looking at them. He then just shook his head and lied back down. Annie knew the rage coming out of Duke was just due to the situation.

“This totally sucks, but, it is what it is Duke. I’m sorry. I can go another hour if u want, Kat and Fred seemed pretty tired.”

“Nah it’s fine, I don’t think I’m sleeping anyway.”

“Ok, honestly me neither. But I’m gonna go use the bathroom down the hall now that you’re up.” She sheathed her knife and got up. As Duke was about to close the door, he heard a voice, starting out very quietly and become more distinct

“I don’t know what you want from me!” It was Sarah. “I asked you to LEAVE US ALONE!” She cried, before she let out a quick scream, which was followed with a loud banging sound. Duke ran out of the room and saw her lying face down on the ground. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears and her face terrified. Her nose was spilling out blood

“Duke, Duke, tell him to go away, tell him please to just go away.”

Duke just stood there, frozen in shock. Then, Duke heard the stairs booming. He saw boots begin to appear, which were then to revealed to be worn upon a tall figure, dressed in all black with a gas mask on and hood. It stared at Duke. It was holding a what looked to be likea pipe in its right hand. It then towered over sarah. She looked up at him, shivering with fear. 

The figure swung at her, and her head was knocked back. She let out a scream in agony. The figure then picked her up and carried her up the steps over her should, as her consciousness faded out. 

Duke still stood there frozen. Minutes, that felt like hours passed, until Annie came running to him. She saw the fear in his eyes.

“Hey, hey, what happened what’s wrong!”

He didn’t even lose his gaze, he just stared at the stairs where sarah had been carried away.

He then spoke coldly, “We need to get the fuck out of here.” 


	3. Baby It’s Cold Outside

Two years ago

Duke Parker and Fred Shepherd were feeding into the atmosphere that John Jay University was bringing to the new freshmen. Having already toured Fred’s room, Duke welcomed Fred, his friend from high school and new neighbor, to his own dorm.

“And welcome to Casa de Duke,” Duke said as he walked into his dorm room. Fred came in behind him, amazed he was able to get such a big room for only two people. Fred looked around, half the room was filled with Richmond Storm gear, with posters of actresses that Duke loved. The other half was darker, with no decorations but simply black bed sheets and black window curtains. Fred looked at Duke.

“Your roommate really brightened up the place.”

“Yeah, I know I know. He’s had football practice all week so I’m guessing he just hasn’t gotten around to actual decorations.”

“Where’s he from again”

“Culpepper”

“Ah so, he’s more of a DC Redtails fan.”

“I guess, I dunno, havnt really talked to him. How’s your roommate?”

“Oh you know Donny, it’ll be party central just like his house back in high school. Honestly I’m hoping that’s where he takes all of his parties, after all the three of us only live 20 minutes away.”

Duke looked back at the black sheets sitting across from his own bed.

“Yea I’ll probably go home with you a few times, he gives me ‘vibes’.”

“I don’t blame ya. So what’d you do over the summer again?”

“Oh you know, worked at Wall Castle again.”

Fred exclaimed, “Oh yeah, that fast food place with the water park inside of it. What’d you work there as”

“Everything,” Duke replied, “Literally one day I’d take orders through the drive through, another I was a lifeguard for one of the slides, some days I’d stock the shelves for the retail store part of it, and occasionally I even sold tickets for John Jay summer basketball. You might think it was a lot to handle, but as my friend Kat, whom I met working there, would always say, ‘You can’t....’”

Just then, they heard a scream down stairs. Fred and Duke jumped up and ran towards the scream. Other students were peaking their heads out of their doors. As the ran down the steps and towards the front courtyard of their residential hall, they heard the male scream again.

“Get this bitch off of me, I said GET HER OFF.” He was pinned to the ground, with his arm being pulled away from his body and into the air by a girl. Duke ran up and had to pry her away from the kid. He got up and looked her dead in the eyes.

“This fucking bitch tried to get me high, she......”

“Oh thats the best lie you could come up with, ‘oh come here sweetheart, Ive had a pathetic day just looking at women to bone to impress my fried frat boys’ fucking touch me again and your arm goes into the Potomac!” The girl gave him a snarling look, before flinching and causing him to fall back onto the ground, and getting straight back up to sprint as far away from her as he could. She turned to Duke and Fred.

“Can I HELP you two with something,” she said with a bit of rage.

“That’s just Hunter Curtis, he went to school with us back at Richmond Prep, which is actually just like 20 minutes down the road...” Duke said before she interrupted.

“Did I ask?” She looked at Duke, before he and Fred looked at each other, and back to her. They stood there for nearly five seconds, before the girl smiled and reached out her hand.

“Annie MacTavish, Baltimore, Maryland, English Literature Major.”

Duke reached out and shook her hand, “Duke Parker, Cybersecurity and Sports Management double Major, this is Fred Shepherd, Sports Management and Accounting.”

Annie turned to Fred, “I am so sorry for you, I can only imagine the horrors you will endure with accounting”

Fred replied, “Oh, it’ll be fine, I’m sure, but Baltimore isn’t too bad, much worse places to be from.”

“Like where?” Annie asked.

“Culpepper,” Duke said quietly.

“Oh, is that supposed to mean something or...?”

Duke interjected, “Never mind, dorm room, res hall, what’s all the locations we should expect to find you at?”

  
Present Day

“So let me get this straight. Mike was dragged away by his own shadow, fucking Joey of all people stole your car, and Sarah was beaten and taken away by a guy with a gas mask.” Dallas said, as he was standing in front of Duke, Kat, Fred, and Annie, with Heather sitting on the floor. She preferred the floor, despite there being another seat open. It had been several hours since Sarah was gone, and the sun was already deep behind the clouds as snow began to pile on the ground.

“Or woman, could have been a woman, I didn’t really get time to ask...” Duke replied before getting interrupted.

“I don’t care what it was, this is all made up. I don’t know what you saw Duke but it wasn’t any of that. I’m sick and tired of your bullshit.” Annie then stood up.

“Look, he’s telling the truth....”

“And you saw all of this happen?”

“Duke told me he gave his keys to Joey, we noticed that Mike disappeared, and I heard Sarah scream”

“But you didn’t SEE any of this.”

“No, but why the fuck would he lie?”

“Cause that’s what he does. He’s there for you, he gets you whatever you want, then he starts his bullshit and it drives you insane.”

Duke interjected, “That’s not true”

Dallas got quiet, “Then why did Joey walk out on you?” The room got quiet, Dallas and Duke refused to look each other in the eye

Duke sniffled, “Just take us down to Lynchburg”

“Me and Heather are staying here, they probably just took your car out to buy a few things, I don’t know, but they aren’t coming back here to see everyone gone, and get stuck and get trapped up here. 

“Then give me your god damn keys”.

Dallas hesitated, but he eventually reached into his pocket and tossed him the keys to his all terrain vehicle. Duke, Kat, Fred, and Annie walked out of the manor, not saying a word to Heather nor Dallas. They threw their bags in the back, while Duke hopped into the drivers seat. The rest got in, but they all just sat there, waiting for Duke to say at least a word.

“I’m, I’m sorry I dragged you guys up here, this wasn’t how I wanted this to go,” he said coldly

Kat leaned forward and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Hey it’s alright, we’re all ok, its not at all your fault. Forget what your brother said, we all believe u.” Duke then turned to Annie and Fred, who were giving him half smiles.

“Let’s just get out of here. What the, what the, come on start.” He tried starting the vehicle, but it wouldn’t turn on. “No, no, no no!” They got out of the vehicle. Duke popped the hood, but he already knew it was too cold and snowed in for it to start. “Perfect, just perfect.” They walked back inside, to which Dallas and Heather got up and went to the group. Dallas looked at Duke.

“So, no Lynchburg I guess.”

Duke quickly stared at Dallas smugly, before walking into the living room to set his bag down. 

“Oh I’m not just gonna sit here and wait, I’m going to the radio tower and I’m getting the police, any of you are welcome to join me.” Dallas and Heather just stood there, while Kat, Fred, and Annie walked towards the door where Duke was standing. He looked back at Dallas.

“If we don’t come back in 12 hours, go to the cave”

“I know, just try not to die” Dallas looked away from Duke, before the four opened the door and left the manor.

The snow had stopped, but the fog was still prevalent, as they couldn’t even see the top of the radio tower.

“Ok, so the radio tower has a small station at the top that can get us communication to Lynchburg. Its a half mile from here, but if we cant find it there’s a few entrances to the cave thats inside the mountain,” he told the group.

“How big is the cave?” Kat asked him

Duke replied, “Big enough, they used to use it as a mineshaft like fifty years ago. It has paths that will take you to an elevator that leads into the basement of to the manor”.

They began walking, to which they remained silent. Duke was still shook over how angry Dallas was. Dallas never liked when Duke told him something he didn’t want to hear, whether he needed to hear it or not. Duke kept thinking how Dallas was always telling on him to their parents for anything Duke did wrong, why did he have to be such a dick, he thought. Why was he always power hungry.

The storm began to pick up, as the snow was coming down in rapid flurries. The visibility dropped to where he couldn’t even see his group behind him. He stopped for a few seconds, to see if they would catch up. Duke could feel his feet and hands start to go cold. His boots, gloves, and layers of jackets were starting to not be enough for the enduring blizzard. It had been at least a minute, and there was still no sign of Kat, Fred, or Annie. All he could think about, was his worry if they got to the cave. Duke began blaming himself. Why, leave now and not later, he thought. Duke knew the storm was going to pick up again, but the thought of having to be in the same room as Dallas, after he humiliated him in front of his friends, enraged him. He wanted out of the manor and out of Dallas’s grasp more than trying to keep his friends save. Duke looked into the distance. It was mixed with grey and white. He knew the sun was no more than a half hour from setting. Maybe he needed to pull over and find an entrance to the cave, and hope that his friends were there. Then, in the distance, a small black dot emerged. The Radio Tower! Duke then began walking straight toward it. As he got closer, the dot was changing its shape. Instead of getting taller, the dot was remaining still. It was becoming more defined, revealing not to be the tower. Duke kept getting closer and closer. He couldn’t tell what it was. Duke then began to hear quiet, little stomps. The object was moving, it was moving toward him. As it got more defined, he saw it was it was running. It was a person, in all black. They were sprinting, but kept their hands to their side and body perpendicular to the ground. The figure was clearly locked onto Duke. As it got closer, he could hear what sounded like growling. Duke stood frozen in his tracks, the fear inside him took control of his body, not letting him move in the slightest. The figure was feet away from Duke, as then, its arms raised in front it, it ran into Duke and sent him to the ground.

Duke felt the whiplash as he laid on the ground. The fear inside of him wouldn’t let him stand. The figure towered over him. It was the same figure in the gas mask that had taken Sarah away. It reached its left arm out to him and picked him up by the jacket, and pulled him toward itself. Duke looked through the gas mask and into the black circles and that was covering its eyes. Duke showed the figure the fear that was controlling him, as his mouth began to tremble and his eyes grew in size. It pulled him even closer to itself and spoke with a deep voice.

“Now, its time for you to suffer.”

Duke still remained frozen, his fear was too strong for him to even kick at the figure. He still was trembling. He look at the figured right arm, as it was winded behind itself. The arm then began extending at a rapid pace, as its fist landed between his eyes above his nose, knocking him out.

His eyes opened. It was almost dark, with a limit of grey still in the sky. Duke was laying on the snow covered ground. He couldn’t feel his hands or his feet, but everything from his neck up was filled with pain. The snowfall had completely stopped, and he sat himself up. He looked next to him and saw a piece of wood that was planted into the ground below the snow. He brushed the snow off of it. It read:

McDonough Brothers Mineshaft

An entrance to the cave! It had to be just a hundred feet behind the sign. He jumped to his still frozen feet, and began walking forward. He could barley keep himself standing, but he was moving toward the entrance as fast as he could. He looked forward and began to see a yellow dot. Behind, growing were more yellow dots. The lights had been tuned on! His friends had made it. Duke then entered the entrance, before falling onto the ground. He let out a groan of pain. As he was attempting to keep his eyes open, he heard feet hitting the ground as someone’s was running towards him. An arm grabbed his jacket and lifted him to his feet and looked into his eyes. 

“Annie I found Duke,” She yelled. It was Kat! Annie came running towards them and hugged him.

“Hey hey, its ok, you’re ok now.” Annie couldn’t believe she was looking at him. It had been an hour since she and Kat found the entrance. He looked at her, barely keeping his eyes open.

“Fred, where’s Fred.” He said its a grown letting out from his pain. Annie just stared at him, before looking down.

“Annie, where’s Fred?” Duke said to her louder. He jumped off of Kat and began trying to walk back to entrance, before Kat held onto him. Annie walked over to him

“We thought you were both dead,” she said coldly, as she began tearing up. “Duke, surviving a blizzard like that, for just an hour, is near impossible. I, I don’t know how you did, but this is gonna have long term effects on you. But we can’t go and find Fred. Its pitch black out there, he’s gone Duke. He’s fucking gone. We’ll get ourselves killed if we look for his dying body tonight.”

Duke didn’t even have the strength to cry. He then began remember what happened. 

“Annie I saw it,” he said, as he laid on the floor with Kat grasping him, trying to comfort him and also warm him up. “The gas mask, the figure I told you about. It found me, and it told me I would suffer.” Duke then lost consciousness.

Duke slept the rest of the night, with Kat falling asleep while laying next to him. Annie eventually fell asleep due to exhaustion.

They woke up the next day with the sun shining. The storm had finally blown over, leaving a clear sky. The three of them left the cave and walked onto where their tracks were still imprinted into the snow. They walked up the hill and could see the radio tower, just a quarter of a mile away. As they got to to the middle of the path. Kat spotted something red in the snow. They ran towards it, being revealed to be Fred’s beanie. They pulled it to reveal his body, covered in the snow. Annie dragged it onto the surface, as she checked for any vitals. Nothing. His hands were black, his face was slanted. The gas mask figure must have found him too, leaving Fred to die, while bringing Duke to the entrance. Duke understood what it meant to suffer.


	4. All I Want For Christmas is You

Kat opened the door to the radio tower. Duke and Annie walked in behind her, setting Freds body on one of the tables. Duke continued to look at Fred’s lifeless body, “We’ll leave him here for the cops to find,” he told Annie and Kat. They all stood there, none of them knowing what to say.

“Come on, I‘ll take you both upstairs to the station,” he said quietly. They headed up the steps and into the control room. The room was filled with monitors and tv screens. Microphones and sound boards occupied everywhere that wasn’t a screen. Kat looked around in amazement.

“This is bigger than my whole apartment.”

“Yea back in the day, the mineshaft was always worried about losing miners, or trucks not showing up, so they built a whole security room and put a tower on top. We could make contact all the way to Charlotte if we needed to. Too bad the cameras died out years ago, or we could’ve recorded the whole weekend,” Duke replied. He went and sat down at the center station, and picked up the microphone. Kat and Annie stood next to him both sides, with Kat leaning in.

“How do you know how to use all of this?” She asked.

“Oh my roommate from freshman year was a tech wiz, even though we didn’t get along, he did show many a few little tricks.” Duke replied as he turned a few nobs, a few lights flashed, and he flipped the microphone switch to on.

“Alright, here we go,” he said as he began to push the button

“Lynchburg police station One Three Two Zero, Lynchburg police station One Three Two Zero, this is McDonough Tower. Do you copy?”

There was no response, just static. Duke sat there and waited for thirty seconds. Still nothing. He tried again.

“Lynchburg police station One Three Two Zero, Lynchburg police station One Three Two Zero, this is McDonough Tower. Do you copy, this is an emergency?”

“McDonough Tower, this is Lynchburg Police One Three Two Zero, go ahead.”

Duke, Kat, and Annie quickly cheered. They had been seconds away from giving up. Duke hit the button again. 

  
“Lynchburg police station One Three Two Zero, this is an emergency situation. We have 5 people trapped on the mountain, 3 people missing and one dead. I repeated, 5 trapped, 3 missing, and one, one dead.” Duke stopped. The joy that was inside of him had vanished. He remembered seeing the Fred’s eyes, missing life inside of them. He laid in the snow without any movement for who know’s how long, suffering, begging for his life. He died alone. Duke couldn’t take it. He stood up and walked over into the corner of the station. Annie and Kat looked at him, as he just stood there, his backed turned from them. The voice on the radio retuned.

“McDonough Tower, we will send an evac team in the coming hours. Due to the snow and the blizzard pop ups, we wont be able to reach you for for 12-16 hours. Do you have enough supplies to be able to survive? Copy?”

Annie jumped into the seat and hit the button, “Copy that Lynchburg police, we will be ok for 12-16 hours”

“Copy that, stay safe McDonough Tower.” Annie got up from the seat, and saw Kat put her arm around Duke. Duke turned to her.

“Its my fault.” 

“Duke...” Kat tried to comfort him, before he interrupted.

“I stood there, frozen with fear. If I could’ve scared that, that thing away, Fred would be still alive.”

Annie interjected, “You don’t know that, it could’ve found Fred first”

“Even still, I could’ve found Fred. He’s dead because of me.” 

Duke lost it. All of his emotions left his body. Tears down his face, and he screamed. He had never had an emotional breakdown before. Kat and Annie embraced him. 

“Ive known him for five years, we’d talk all the time, we’d play sports, video games, now he can’t do any of that anymore.” Duke said while trembling. 

Annie leaned into him, “Duke, if he were here right now, he’d tell us to get out of here. He wouldn’t want us to worry about him. Let’s go back to the manor, find your brother, and tomorrow it’ll all be over. I promise.”

Duke cleared himself up, “Ok, Ok, lets head through the cave in case a storm picks up.

They walked down the stairs, and none of them looked at Fred’s body. Annie opened the door, and the three of them walked outside. The sun was already setting. They spotted a sign for an entrance and proceeded inside. The lights were still on. Kat looked at Duke.

“You told your brother to come looking for us after 12 hours right? We left at least an hour and a half before the sun set yesterday. Do you think....” Duke cut her off.

“I’m sure he’s fine, he probably went down into the cave and turned the lights on for us, but was still too mad to come and find us. I don’t know, I don’t care, no ones veering off after what happened to Fred.” They walked along the path through the cave. Duke continued, “So the cave has at least 15 entrances, some go all the way down the mountain, but I I guarantee those are flooded in...” he stopped as Annie began falling. Her foot fell through a board that she stepped on. Kat and Duke jumped down and grabbed her.

“Get me out of here, fuck” She wasn’t in any pain, but found it an inconvenience. Duke helped her onto her feet.

“Sorry about that, I should’ve told you that parts of the cave have holes in them, especially around this time of year when ice forms and makes ice bridges inside of here, very unstable”

“Whatever, I’m fine, how far away are we from the manor?”

“The elevator is just a few hundred feet ahead.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” A scream was coming in front of them. Duke knew that scream, it was Dallas. The trio sprinted forward, avoiding any wooden boards they saw. Ad they got to the elevator, they realized it was gated off, locked ,and the gate stretched to the walls and ceiling of the cave. Behind the gate, was Dallas and Heather. They were tied up onto the door of the elevator. Heather was crying, when Dallas recognized his brother. 

“Duke, Duke, help us. Please, I’m sorry what I said, you were right.”

Duke turned to Annie, “Can you cut through the gate,” he asked her

She had her knife out, trying to cut away, “I, I can’t. Fuck. I don’t know what this metal is.” Duke and Kat began shaking the gate. No luck. Duke looked forward and saw a black figure emerge from the shadows.

“Out luck Mr. Parker? What a shame. What a shame indeed.” It was the gas mask figure.

Duke felt the rage inside of him, “You, You fucker!” 

The figure laughed deeply. “Oh, the joy it brings me to see you so hopeless. Oh Mr. Parker, I’ve been watching you for some time,” It said with a deep voice, muffled by the gas mask. “I’m slowly killing those around you, and while you may think you can run, you can’t not until I kill your friends, your family, those close to you. My name is...”

Annie interjected and yelled, “Mawt. You are Mawt”

The figure turned to her, “Silly child, Mawt would look at me and bow to me. My name is Kye.

Annie interjected again, “I’m pretty sure the god of death wouldn’t bow to you Kye. What kind of name is Kye anyway, did you go by Kyle and drop the L?”

Kye walked up to her. They were feet apart, only separated by the gate. She felt no fear, to which Kye understood.

“It doesn’t matter how I got my name,” he said quickly and frustrated. He turned to Duke. “What matters, Mr. Parker, is that I’m giving you a gift. A Christmas gift you could say. And the best part is that you get to choose your gift”. He ran up to the elevator and grabbed an ax. “Mr. Parker, you get to choose who I get to kill. Let’s me our contestants. First, we have your oh so lovely brother, Dallas. Dallas hates you Duke, he hated living in your shadow, he hates the people you surround yourself with. Ironically, he’s wanted you dead for a long time Duke.

Dallas began struggling on the wall, “Thats not true Duke. I love you, I love you!’

Kye turned to Heather, “And we have the lovely Heather Garrick. I know you can’t stand her Duke. She’s been nothing but a bully to you. But Heather has a secret, doesn’t she”

Heather screamed, “NO, NOOOOOO!”

Kye laughed, “She’s pregnant with Dallas’s child. That right Duke, you have a little nephew or niece inside of that tummy. Be a shame if I smashed it right throw it.” Kye laughed again.

Dallas yelled again, “Save her Duke, I love you, your my brother, but she’s worth the extra time to live.”

Kat was holding onto Duke. He stood there, frozen, and was trembling. Kye leaned forward into Duke, pressing himself against the gate.

“Oh come on Dukey boy, you better make a decision soon or I may as well just let them burn in a fire.”

Duke still stood frozen. He was shaking, with tears an sweat dripping down his face. He began holding Kat tighter. 

“Heather, save Heather. She has a child”

Kye laughed, “Lovely choice. Now its time to play, Kill, That, Dallas.” Kye took the axe, and brought it behind his back. Duke was still trembling. He wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know what do to. His love for Dallas was mixing with the fear inside of him. He hated the way he left things, he knew his brother thought he wanted to see him die. Dallas closed his eyes, and stopped trying to escape. He accepted death, he welcomed it. Kye began following through with a swing of his axe. Duke then lost all emotion.

“Dallas, save Dallas,” he said coldly.

Kye stopped inches from Dallas. He turned to face Duke, “I like how you think,” he said while laughing. Heather began screaming, while Dallas repeatedly yelled, “NOOO, KILL ME!” Kye then swung into Heather’s stomach. He removed the ax, now stained in red, and began chopping at her stomach. She screamed in pain. Kye kept swinging, faster and faster. Her in legs dropped to the ground, while her upper half was still tied onto the door. Her insides were spilling out and blood was being sprayed as multiple arteries were bursting. Dallas and Kye were covered in blood. Heather stopped screaming as she began to turn pail. She let out a few moans, before the life in her left. Her upper half finally slipped to the ground. Duke and Annie stood against the gate frozen. Kat was leaning against the gate, crying with agony, when part of the gate opened up, causing her to fall. Duke hesitated, before coming to his senses and running to her to help her up. As he got to the ground, he saw a shadow. Kye was towering over him. Kye reached for Kat, and before Duke could even react, he felt Annie grab his hand. She began running out of the cave, while Kye was holding Kat as she was kicking and screaming, and Dallas was balling his eyes out. Kye laughed as he looked around at the scene of the crime.


	5. Got Run Over by a Reindeer

  
Annie and Duke were sprinting as fast as they could through the woods, still holding onto each other. They didn’t even have time yet to react to Heather getting killed. It was nighttime, with the full moon in the sky lighting up the mountain. Annie stopped and they both began to catch their breath.

“I think we lost him,” she said, leaning forward, trying not to vomit.

“Fuck, fuck Annie, Heather just got murdered right in front of us.” He dropped to his knees. Kat not being there had just occurred to him, “Kat, fuck, shes gone.” He jumped up to his feet and tried to run back to the cave, but Annie grabbed him and wouldn’t let him move.

“Duke, its over, shes probably dead now. If we go and find her, Kye is just going to kill us.”

Duke stopped trying to get away from her. He turned around to face her. Still embracing him, he put her hand on hers. “No. He’s going to kill you if we go after him. He said he wont stop until he kills my friends and my family. Thats you, thats my parents and my sister, thats anyone who’s ever been close to me. I don’t know why, or how, but if he’s been watching me, then he knows who to kill. I’m not going to let him kill you.” Instead of back talking him and saying she wouldn’t let Kye kill her, she just stared into his eyes. She accepted that his hand was on hers. They leaned forward into each other, still caught on each other’s gaze. Instead of holding him from being able to move, she was embracing him as she felt like nothing else mattered. She didn’t want to just protect him anymore, she wanted him to stay with her and never let go. As they were focused on each other, Duke began hearing a growl. He turned his head, to see Sarah standing in front of them.

“Sarah, you’re, you’re ok?” Duke was relieved to see her. But she didn’t saying anything back. Sarah began growling and hissing at them. Annie looked closely and saw her neck was soaked in blood. Sarah was moving slowly towards them, as they were still embracing each other, and were backing up.

“Uh Duke, I don’t shes her. I think, I think she might be undead.”

“What like a zombie, zombies don’t exist, they can’t.”

“Duke I think its pretty clear that she’s not normal right now.”

As they kept backing up, Duke heard growling behind them. He turned his head, to see four wolves, ready to strike. They were locked onto the three of them. Annie turned her head to notice them too. She gasped, but Duke had an idea.

“Ok, on a count of three, were going to run around Sarah in opposite sides, I’ll go left, you go right. When the wolves attack her, we bolt for it, there’s another cave entrance up ahead, and we can try and hide there until the police come. Do you trust me?”

“I do,” she replied.

“Ok, one, two....” she interpreted him.

“Wait, on three or go?” The wolves were getting closer.

“Are you kidding me I said on three, ready, one, two, three.”

They let go of each other. Duke veered left, Annie went right. Sarah tried to grab Duke. Her arm was around him. Annie didn’t look back, until she tripped herself hit the ground, seeing Sarah grab Duke. Duke kicked her to the ground, and ran to Annie, embracing with her again. The undead Sarah screamed for only a second, as one wolf bit into her leg, while another bit her neck. As her leg was pulled off, her neck ripped apart. Her head, still hanging by the back of her neck, rolled backwards. Blood was shooting out from top of her body. All four wolves were devouring her lifeless body. Duke picked Annie up and they began to sprint again. The wolves stayed behind to finish the body. They ran, holding onto each other, and not looking back. Duke spotted the cane entrance, where they ran an slid to the ground. They embraced each other, trying to listen for the wolves. They sat there for what felt like days, but in reality were only minutes. No sounds, just the two of them breathing. Duke was holding onto her as tight as he could.

“Its ok, its ok, we’re safe now,” he told her. Annie started to cry. Duke had never seen her lose control of her emotions. She looked at him.

“What if, what if she was trying to get us to help her, and we just let her die.”

“I know thats not what happened, I looked into her eyes, I saw the lifelessness inside of her, Annie. She was gone long before we found her. We put her soul of its misery.”

Annie was shaking. She had never felt fear like this before. She had seen horrible things in her life. People bullied her for her whole life. Her mother committed suicide years ago, right in front of her by overdosing. But none of that mattered. She felt protected, she felt safe. She knew Duke wouldn’t let anything happen to her anymore. She wouldn’t stop staring into his eyes. Her heart was attached. She had never felt this kind of feeling before, but she didn’t want it to ever go away.

“I don’t want you to ever let me go,” she said coldly. They were laying flat ground now. Her arms were around his shoulders as is arms were around her back. She laid her had on his chest, feeling his heart beating was soothing her. They both, exhausted, passed out while keeping each other warm and safe.

  
“Wakey Wakey little bitches.” It was Kye, with Dallas and Kat tied up, connected by a leash, with their mouths covered by ropes. 


	6. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Annie jumped to her feet, pulled out her knife and began going towards Kye, until he pulled Kat to his grasp, and pulled out his own knife. Annie stopped, and Kye laughed.

“Nuh uh uh,” he said, as his deep, muffled voice was filled with joy. “You get within a few inches of me and I slice her throat.” Annie then stopped, she went back and held onto Duke.

“Let us go on a walk, guests first,” Kye said with a laugh. Annie and Duke, still holding onto each other, walked out of the cave. Kye followed, holding onto Kat and pulling Dallas with the leash. Duke and Annie were walking slowly. Duke could only think about how he wasn’t going to let Annie go. He wasn’t going to give her life to Kye. He worried that it would come down to Dallas or Kat’s lives in order for him to let go of Annie. But he would decide that only if it came to it. Annie became his sole priority, her safety, her mindset, all of that were the only aspects of life that Duke cared about. They had walked for nearly a hundred feet, when Kye barked an order.

“Stop, we shall do this here.”

Annie and Duke turned around. Annie was fearing what would happen to Kat, but knew her own safety was guarded by Duke, giving her as much sense of security as she could have. Kye walked forward, still holding onto a trembling Kat.

“Duke Parker, the time has come. I’m going to make you a miserable person. Do you understand that Duke? I’m going to make you lose the will to live, you will beg me to kill you, but no matter what, you will sleep scared for the rest of your days.

“Yo’re done hurting people Kye. Just let them go, and I’ll tell the police we made it all up. You don’t ever have to worry about me saying a word.”

Kye laughed, “Oh man, that’s golden. You actually think you get a choice. Dukey I already gave you a choice, this time you just have to watch like a scared little puppy. Give me your girlfriend, thats an order”

Duke wasn’t letting Annie go, as he gripped her tighter. “Leave us alone.”

“Duke, I would strongly give in if I were you, if you want everyone here to live a few extra moments, just give in.”

He was letting her go, she wasn’t letting go either. Tears were going down both their faces. Annie leaned into Duke.

“Duke, it’ll be ok, I know you’re don’t want to let me go, but, for everyone to live, I need to walk to him,” she whispered

“No, I cant, I’m never letting you go,” he said while shaking 

“Duke, I, I love you.” She leaned in and kissed him, before pushing him away and walking to Kye

Duke could feel the rage inside of him, “If you touch her, I will fucking kill you Kye!” Kye simply laughed once more.

“Oh Dukey boy, I’m going to do so many things to her, and I’ll even let you watch. Unless you do one thing.”

“What?” He was trembling again. He couldn’t lose her, he couldn’t bare to see her in any pain. Kye laughed again.

“Pull your pants down, and lets see the boner you just grew.”

Dallas fell to the ground. The rope in his moth fell out, to which Dallas was rolling around in laughter. Duke didn’t understand, what the fuck was going on, he thought. Dallas was laughing so hard he couldn’t even breathe.

“THAT, THAT, THAT’S THE BEST THING IVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME!” Dallas shrieked with joy. Then all of a sudden, there was movement in the bushes that surrounded them. A figure came walking out. It was Heather. She was holding her phone in her hand, recoding what had just happened.

“Dallas you idiot,” she said before bursting into laughter. “You were supposed to wait until he took his pants off”

“I’m sorry, it, it was just too amazing.”

Kye walked up and high-fived Dallas, “Man, a million views are guaranteed to see this masterpiece when we upload it when we get home”. Kye took off his gas mask. It was Mike.

“M, M, Mike? Heather?” Duke said, now trembling with confusion. Heather, Mike, and Dallas were all too busy laughing, until Heather turned back to Duke. 

“Oh Duke, thanks for killing me and my child,” she sad as she laughed. “We made a fake body for me and filled it with food, and i cant believe you thought it was my lower half!” She said before laughing. Annie freed Kat, who was just as confused as Duke and Annie were. Mike went up to Duke.

“Hey man, no hard feelings I hope? You gotta admit, it was a pretty good prank.”

“Mike, Mike, Sarah is dead,” Duke said coldly

“Oh yeah haha, when I carried her away and “beat” her with a pipe. Oh god that was fun.” Annie quickly went up to Duke and Mike.

“No Mike, we, we saw her die, she was eaten by a pack of wolves”

“Wait, what,” Mike said as his smile dropped from his face and his voice went cold.

A few hours had passed. Duke, Dallas, Mike, Annie, Heather, and Kat were all sitting in around the fireplace. Duke was eating a sandwich that Annie had warmed up for him, while they both sat next to each other and held each other tightly. Mike was staring at the fire.

“Sarah didn’t like the idea of a prank at first. Then, after she recoded Heather’s ‘death’, she said what we were doing was awful, to me privately. I told her it was a joke, to which she called me a cuck. She had never said something to me so bad before, and I didn’t know how to react. So I hit her. She didn’t say anything, she looked like she saw a ghost and she walked away and left the cave. She, I, I traumatized her.”

“She looked like a zombie?” Annie asked

“Yea,” No one responded back, they all just sat there quietly. Mike continued to stare at the fire.

“And I never came out into the storm Duke. I don’t know what you saw, but I didn’t kill your friend.” Duke didn’t even look at him

“I don’t know what I saw.” He looked at his watch, it was 11 pm. The police would be here between 6 and 12. “Look, just 7-13 hours and we are out of here. No one has to say another word. Let’s just rest and wait for for the police.” No one moved for minutes. Duke didn’t even know what to think of Dallas. He lied to him, Dallas knew a prank wasn’t what he needed right now. He kept holding onto Annie. She was in shock, but the only thing that mattered to her was sitting beside her. Mike let out a sigh.

“This is all my fault.” He stood up. Dallas looked at him

“Hey man, what’s done is done.” He told Mike.

Mike began walking forward, “I can’t live with out her. She was my everything.” He started to run. Dallas then yelled and stood up

“MIKE NO.” Mike then jumped into the fire. He had completely lost the will to live. He didn’t feel any pain. All he wanted, was to fall asleep, and to wake up and see Sarah. He felt warm, and passed out thinking about Sarah as his skin began to peel. Dallas was about stick his hand in the fire, before Duke jumped up and restrained him. Dallas began crying. The fire began to go out has Mike’s body was completely burnt. His bones and parts of his muscle laid in the ashes. Duke and Dallas fell to the floor.

“He was my best friend!” Dallas screamed. Kat was in the kitchen throwing up. Heather passed out, while Annie sat frozen, emotionally scarred. Dallas got off of Duke and woke Heather up, before crying into her chest. After a few minutes, he looked up, ”This is all your fault Duke,” he said, full of rage. Duke looked at Dallas, before gasping, as he saw a figure in the hallway, Kye.


	7. Sugar Plums, Dancing in Their Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: The following chapter may be found sensitive to some. I would like to stress that this is a work of fiction, and that I would never ever wish this upon anyone, no matter what.
> 
> -IS

“That’s it Duke, I’m done,” Dallas turned to Heather, “We’re done. We’re going to bed, and we aren’t leaving our room until the police show up,” he said while anger was boiling inside of him.

“But Dallas, Kye...” Duke tried to say before Dallas interrupted.

“No Duke, No. We made him up, there is no Kye.” Dallas stormed off into his room with Heather. Duke looked at Annie.

“You saw him right, Kye was right there,”

“Duke, I wasn’t looking. And its not that I don’t believe you, but we’ve had, well, a long day would be kind of an understatement. We haven’t had real rest in days, let’s just lay down and try and get some.” He knew she was right. He had seen three people die in one day, it was messing with his head. He was hallucinating. 

“Ok, I trust you,” He told her. She grabbed a blanket, and sat on the floor next to him. She grabbed his hand, and they both laid on the floor. Kat sat down next to them and pulled her own blanket over herself. Annie put the blanket over both her and Duke, and she snuggled up against him. She was warm. He felt safe with her. She fell asleep instantly, but still didn’t let go of him. Duke closed his eyes. He tried to force himself to fall asleep, but guilt kept flowing into his mind. He had forgot about how he could have saved Fred. Fred died alone, in the cold, helpless. Sarah was in such shock, that to him, she was already dead, but he could have saved her if he knew she had life in her. And then Mike. Mike gave up. Mike gave up because Duke messed up. It didn’t matter if the prank was wrong or not, Dallas and Mike didn’t actually mean for anyone to get hurt. But Duke took it too far, he hated himself. The girl laying against him, who told him that she loved him, kept the little hope that was still inside of Duke from leaving. 

Duke opened his eyes, as he couldn’t sleep. But when he looked over at Kat, she was also awake. She had a gigantic grin on her face, startling Duke. She then crawled over to him.

“Well hello there Dukey bear” she said in a cute voice. 

“Um, Kat, what are you doing,” he asked her. She could hear the fear coming out of his voice.

“Oh Duke, come on, we both know ever since we met that you’ve wanted to fuck me. Why not now. Come on Dukey bear, pull it out.” She then took her jacket off.

“Kat, your stressed. Just try and fall asleep...”

“Duke, do you not want this?” She took her jeans off.

“No Kat, your one of my best friends, you mean so much to me, don’t do this.” He let go of Annie, ready to protect her.

“Oh don’t tell me you would rather fuck that scank”

“No Kat, sex is one of the last things on my mind right now”. She took her top off, leaving only her bottom underwear still on her

“Duke, fuck me, you don’t even need a condom”

“If your turned on, I’m sure Dallas has a ton of porn on his phone...”

  
Kat jumped onto him and pinned him down. Annie, still asleep, laid only feet away from her. Kat pushed her left hand against his shoulder to keep him frozen, while her right hand was against his throat, chocking him.

“I guess you could call me, a kinky bitch”. She pulled his pants down and slid onto him. Duke began crying. One of his best friends, was doing something to him that he could never have imagined. He almost wanted to die. Betrayal wasn’t even a strong enough word to describe how he felt.

“Oh yea, fuck me Duke, I know you love me and not that scank.” He looked over at Annie. She was still asleep. Duke was starting to gasp for air.

“Can’t breathe? That’s how I know your into it. Maybe when you finish, I can have a child, and we can name him Kye.” Duke tried to scream, but Kat choking him prevented any sound from occurring. He looked over at Annie one last time. He was ready to lose consciousness. Staring at Annie, he saw her knife on her belt. With the little strength he had left, he pushed Kat of of him, and reached his arm for Annie’s knife. 

“Oh so you’re going to play hard to get Duke. Ok fine, lets kill her and take turns fucking her dead body.”

He turned to Kat, behind her, Kye stood watching. Duke knew he was enjoying what he saw. The suffering, the betrayal, its what fueled Kye. Duke moved his arm and impaled Kat in her chest.

“I’ve suffered enough Kye, now it’s time that that you feel pain.”

Duke opened his eyes. He still felt Annie holding his hand. He sat up. Kat was laying just a few feet away, her blanket still over her. Duke looked around the room. Kye no longer appeared, and the room was only housing the trio. Annie woke up and grabbed Duke even tighter. Duke began to cry.

“Hey? Hey it’s ok, it’s ok I’m here,” she said holding him. 

“Annie,” he said coldly, tears falling down his face and he told her what happened. “She betrayed me.”

“Duke everything’s ok, you had a bad dream, you’re hallucinating. She’s just over there, sleeping. Kye was just something your brother and his friend made up” 

“He’s real! He wants to kill you,” he cried 

“No ones going to kill me, I’m fine, you’re fine, the police will be here in just a few hours. Let’s go back to sleep.’

They both lied down. Duke didn’t know what to think. He felt Kye’s presence just moments ago. Annie began embracing him as they both tried to fall asleep. She’s right, he thought. Annie moved her arm.

“Thats odd, I could have sworn I sheathed my knife earlier,” she said confused.

Duke jumped up and ran to Kat. He pulled the blanket off of her. There she laid, naked, with Annie’s knife his her chest, pale and blood seeping out of her mouth. Annie then screamed. Duke grabbed Annie’s hand and they bolted out of the manor.


	8. Under the Mistletoe

Annie and Duke finally slowed down. Out of breath, they both leaned forward and nearly vomited. The snow began to pick pick up. They then walked into one of the entrances to the cave.

“Holy, holy fuck Duke!” She took her knife out of her coat pocket, wiped off Kat’s blood, and sheathed her knife.

“You grabbed the knife?” Duke asked, with a mix of confusion and shock.

“I don’t go anywhere without it. But, fuck, you, your were right Duke. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“Its ok, its ok.” He pulled her into him and they embraced. He wasn’t letting her go ever again. She wrapped her arms around him. Tears were going down both of their faces. Duke began shivering.

“Hey, hey what’s wrong,” Annie asked him concerned. She hugged him even more while staring into his eyes”

“Dallas, Dallas and Heather are still in the manor, with Kye.”

“Duke, Dallas told you he’s done.”

“But, he’s, he’s my brother...”

Annie leaned in and kissed him. He accepted and kissed her back. Their hands holding, Annie pushed him to the wall of the cave. In love, She put her hands on the sides of his face as she continued to kiss him.

Hours had passed. Duke and Annie laid on the floor, snuggled up together against the wall of the cave. For the first time in days, she felt at ease. She was holding his hand while his other hand ran through her hair. She didn’t want this to ever end. The cops could take years to find them, but she didn’t care. She could stay there forever as long as Duke was protecting her. Duke felt warm inside. Looking at her, Annie was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen. Duke looked up. In the distance, he saw a shadow begin to emerge, deep in the cave. It was Kye. Kye now was dressed in an all black suit, black pants, a black tie, a black suit vest, and black dress shoes. He no longer had a hood, and the eyes of his gas mask were red. Kye just stared at him. Annie could feel Duke becoming tense. She looked up at him.

“Hey, its ok,” she said calmly as she leaned in and kissed him. When she stopped, Duke looked up. Kye was only twenty feet in front of them. 

“Hey!” Duke yelled

Kye had no reaction. Something emerged behind Kye. A girl, she ran up and stood next to Kye. It was Heather.

“I watched that girl rape you,” she said before laughing. “Why didn’t you invite us Duke? Kye gave me permission, but he told me you wouldn’t let us. All of us.” 

“LEAVE US ALONE KYE!” Duke screamed.

Kye still had no reaction. No movement. Nothing. Heather than ran behind Kye. Duke jumped to his feet and began chasing after Heather. As he ran, Kye disappeared.

“Duke!” Annie yelled as she laid there frozen, fearing where her love was running to

“You gotta catch me, I’m such a naughty girl,” Heather yelled joyously as Duke sprinted after her. She kept getting faster and faster. “Come on fuck boy, catch me.” She then stopped and turned around. Duke, full out sprinting, tackled her to the ground. They both stood up. They were feet a way from a gigantic hole in the cave

“What is wrong with you,” He asked her. Kye reappeared, this time, on the other side of the of the hole. He stood there, stalking them. Heather then gave him a grin, the exact same grin Kat gave him. 

“Dallas hates you with all of the passion inside of him. He loves me so much, that we’ll conceive a child together, and name him Kye.” Kye was now standing behind her. “Imagine, that I suddenly died, and that you being the only person near me when I die, that he hates you even more,” she said laughing. Kye then reached out his hand, to which heather grabbed it. Kye began walking with her toward the edge of the abyss.

“Don’t do it, Don’t do it, NO, NOOOOOOO!” Duke yelled. Heather and Kye then both walked off of the edge and dropped into the abyss, just before Kye disappeared. Heather fell alone. She screamed for almost a full second, before a loud thump was heard. She hit the bottom. A fall that high, it definitely brought her instant death. 

Duke ran back to Annie, she still laid there on the floor.

“Duke, Duke, why did you leave. You told me you would never leave.” She pulled him forward and embraced him. She held him tight. She needed him. He was her guardian. Duke heard a noise behind him. He turned. It was Dallas. Dallas’s legs were weak. He fell to the ground. He laid there on his stomach. Duke looked closer and saw Kye’s axe had fully impaled Dallas.


	9. Advent Calendar

5 years ago

Duke opened his front door and walked into his house. He threw his backpack in the kitchen, before sitting down in the living room. His younger brother Dallas was playing Medal of Duty. Duke picked up the tv remote and switched it to “Agents of the NBA”

“Hey I was playing Duke!” Dallas yelled.

“Shut up, I’m watching my favorite movie,” Duke replied

As they argued, the doorbell rang. Karen Parker, the older sister of the Parker Brothers, went and answered the door. There, a police office was standing.

“Good evening miss, is Drake Parker home?”

“My father? Yea, can I ask why?”

“Something I need to discuss with him, just about one of the court cases he appeared in today, no need to worry.” Drake Parker was a lawyer, known around Richmond for his famous catchphrase, ‘Remember, we don’t charge, unless you win large’

“Dad, someone from work is at the door,” she yelled into the house. Drake got up from his office and came to the door.

“Karen go back inside,” he told her, as she left the door open and went into the living room with Dallas and Duke. “What’s the situation, I just saw it on TV?”

“Its not good, Drake, where was your son today”

“Duke? He was at one of his friends house why?”

“May I come in?”

Present day

Dallas lied on the ground. He felt cold. Duke was helping him sit up. 

“Duke I’ve lost a lot of blood, I feel, I feel cold. Time is running out Duke, the cops will be here soon, and if you’re not up there, they’ll leave without you.” He looked into Dukes eyes, “I know we haven’t had the best of relationships, but, I’m sorry for hating you for so long,” he cried.

“No, no don’t say that. I messed up a lot. I was never the big brother you deserved.” Duke was relatively calm. He could feel the fear in his brother rising.

“Duke, I don’t want to die.” Tears were dripping down his pale face. “I, still had so much I wanted to do, start a family, Heather. Where’s Heather.” Duke couldn’t let him die worried, no matter how much it hurt to lie.

“She’s in the manor, the cops will get her soon. She’s going to be alright,” He said as he gave him a half smile.

“Good, good,” Dallas replied, getting even weaker. “Time is running out Duke. Tell her how much I love her. She’s carrying my child Duke. Make sure he grows up and is better of a person that I ever was. Heather, she wanted to name him....Kye....” Dallas drifted off, dying in Duke’s arms. Duke looked into the cave. Kye was watching them. Duke stood up, letting go of Dallas’s body.

“This is all your fault, this is because of YOU!” Duke yelled to Kye. Kye remained motionless. “Leave us the fuck alone,” Duke continued yelling. Kye them lifted his arm up, and pointed in the direction behind Duke. Duke turned around, and saw Annie lying on the ground.

“Duke, Duke, I can’t feel my legs.” She was eating something. Duke ran over to her and looked into her hand. She was eating berries from a plant that was sitting next to her. Duke recognized the plant from Redwood Camp. Nightshade.


	10. Cookies for Santa

“Annie, how many have you eaten?” 

“About five. I haven’t eaten in days, I’m so hungry,” she said in pain. Duke knew she didn’t have that much longer to live. He grabbed her hand.

“Annie, Annie I never thought I’d find somebody to love”

“Duke, this is my fault. This isn’t how I wanted this weekend to go.” She wouldn’t look him in the eyes. Duke began crying. 

“Annie.” She still wouldn’t look at him. He couldn’t understand why.

“Duke you didn’t deserve this. But, I’m kind of glad I got to spend my final moments in an adventure.” She half smiled. “If you told me years ago this was how I left earth, I’d call you crazy,” she said trying to laugh, but ended up coughing instead. “I need you to do me a favor Duke.” She finally looked at him.

“Anything,” he replied. She reached to her belt, unsheathing her knife. She grabbed it and held it in front of him.

“I don’t want to die in a long painful way. Will you please help me,” she said. Tears were rushing down Duke’s face. He didn’t know if he could do it. His strength was gone. His love for her was trying to keep him away.

“No, I can’t. I cant do that. You’re, you’re my everything.”

“Duke, I’ll just be an adventure away.” 

He leaned toward her and kissed her. She rejected at first, but caved in. She was shaking, to which Duke understood meant she was ready. He would never be ready, but he knew he would one day see her again.

“Ok, ok I will. I love you Annie.” He grabbed her knife, the tip of the blade again her neck.

“I know you did Duke.” He pressed in. Blood sprayed onto her chest, while her eyes rolled back. Her hand dropped from his own. Her face went pail. The life in her was gone. He stood up and put her knife in his pocket. He grabbed her body and placed it next to Dallas’s. He felt alone. Duke looked into the cave, standing in the distance, was Kye. Kye didn’t move. Duke slowly started walking to him. He didn’t know if he was having his very last thoughts, but he did know that one of them wasn’t leaving the cave. Still in his all black suit, Kye didn’t move a muscle. Duke wondered why Kye was doing this. What did he ever do to him. Maybe he was someone he hurt a long time ago. Duke hated hurting people, but thats who he was. They were now standing feet apart, on top of an ice bridge. Duke looked into Kye’s red eyes.

“This is it Kye, I have no fear. Its time one of us die.”

Kye moved his hands to his gas mask. He unplugged the valves that were connected to other valves that ran under his suit. Duke couldn’t believe what he was looking at.


	11. Frosty the Snowman

“Joey!” Duke yelled.He couldn’t believe it. Joey had a deep red cut going from his forehead to his nose. He has two holes in neck where the gas mask connected.

“Hello Duke.” Joey was emotionless. Duke began filling up with guilt and fear.

“You, you took my car.”

“I crashed your car. This suit, its the only thing keeping me alive. Thats because of you. You brought me pain. You made me suffer. That’s why I killed your friends. I killed your brother. I’m a new man, I am Kye.”

“No, no this isn’t you”

“You never cared in the first place. You let people bully me. You left me to die. Instead of worrying where I was, you just worried about that stupid girl,” he yelled.

“All you had to do was tell me you were going through something. I invited you up here, I wanted to you to be a part of my family,” Duke said as pain began to fill inside of him

“All you’ve ever cared about was yourself. It took the deaths of those around you to finally realize your a piece of worthless shit,” Joey yelled back scummingly. Joey was right. He was selfish, he didn’t care about anyone else until it was too late.

“I’m sorry, but this was too far. Its not too late for me to save you.” 

Joey smiled, “No, its not too late for ME to save you.” Joey ran to Duke. He took him to the ground and punched him in the face. Duke whiplashed backwards. Duke was pinned on the ground. Joey punched him for times, until Duke reached for Annie’s knife, slicing his wrist. Duke tried stabbing him in the chest, before Joey grabbed Duke’s wrist. He grabbed the knife and threw it across the ice. He began choking Duke. Duke started to fade away. He looked to the right and saw the ice cracking. With the little strength he had left, he lifted his leg into the air, slamming it down onto the ground. The Ice cracked open. He pushed Joey off of him and into the abyss. Joey screamed for only a second before hitting the ground. 

Grabbing Annie’s knife, he stood up and sprinted to the end of the cave. The Ice was was breaking and dropping behind him. As he was running, he saw the ice breaking below him. He was slipping, but so close to the edge.He jumped and reached the ground as the ice fully collapsed. Duke laid there. Kye was dead, he was finally dead. He couldn’t feel his left leg, but it didn’t matter. He won. He could see the entrance of the cave. It was daylight. The cops would be there soon. Duke reached into his pocket and grabbed a cigar. It was time to rest now, he had won.

“Hey, HEY!!!! We got a live one.” Duke woke up to someone yelling. It was a police officer. He helped him up and walked him up of the cave. The snow was melting. There were two helicopters in the sky, along with what seemed like thousands of cop cars. The manor had police and crime scene tape surrounded by it. A group of people were talking, when, as Duke and the officer walked up to them, the police captain turned around and half smiled. He reached his hand out to Duke.

“You”re going to be alright my friend.”


	12. Comfort & Joy

Officer Brown was sitting at the front desk for the Lynchburg police department. He was enjoying a delicious donut from the bakery down the street. ‘Yum, just like mother used to make,’ he thought. Officer Jacobs was sitting beside him.

“Jesus, Brown do you have to chomp so loud”

“Want a bite,” he replied while chewing, Jacobs felt disgusted.

“Ew no, and I’m on a diet.”

“Wow, DIET cola. You’re gonna be fit in no time.

“You know what, diets are great. They bring you goals, give you esteem, and boost morale.”

“Sounds like work to me. I already do enough of that here.”

“All you do is say hello to whomever walks through those doors, and sign them in.”

“More fun than what you do.”

“Yea, well, I have a more important job. I get to answer the phone.”

“Wow, so sorry to insult you”

“Hey, receptionist is a very respected position in my family. My aunt Pam was an excellent one.”

“You have an Aunt Pam? No way! Me too”

“What! We’ve known each other how long and we didn’t know we both had an aunt Pam. Wonder if they’re the same.”

“Was yours a hot redhead, who often played pranks with her best friend, turned husband on some lovable idiot named Dwight?”

“What the, no, no no. Mine was a receptionist for some scientist, or military guy. I don’t remember what he was, but she did a very good job at answering the phone.”

“Ah gotcha, have any plans after work?” Brown asked, not really caring but trying to push the conversation forward.

“Well, I’m actually going to see my aunt Pam today. But we’ll probably just sit and watch tv. She doesn’t really like going anywhere, cause her son Tommy just likes to sit and play with this snow globe. He has autism, but he’s really smart for his age and has a wild imagination.”

Just then, the door opened, with a man and a woman both walking through. Both dressed in suits and overcoats, the man was older, looking to be in his late 50’s, while the girl was younger, with blond blonde hair and looked to be in her early 20’s. The man spoke to Brown and Jacobs.

“Hello there. We are with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. My name is Agent Braddock Jefferson, this is my intern, Agent Matthews. Can we...” Brown interrupted him.

“Wait, your name is Braddock Jefferson, what is this, 1776,” He broke into laughter. Jefferson looked at him confused, before Jacobs chimed in.

“What, could you’re parents not pick a good enough first name so they gave you two last names?” He said laughing.

“Gentlemen, that is enough. I will have you both arrested if you say one more thing about my name. We would like to talk to the person you have in custody from the incident at McDonough.” Brown calmed down from laughing.

“Sure, haha, sure thing. You just will have to wait until the other detective is done in there.”

“Other Detective?” Jefferson asked surprisingly,

Jacobs replied, “yeah, the state sent someone.” 

Agent Matthews walked up and leaned on the desk, “Who? Who did they send?” She seemed concerned.

“Ah not to worry, let me check the sign in,” Brown said trying to reassure her. He began flipping through the papers on his messy desk. He had warrants to give to cops, ripped tickets from furious citizens. His desk was a mess. Finally he found it.

“Here we go, yes. Leon, his name is Leon Danger.” Brown paused and got quiet. Jefferson moved Matthews out of the way.

“Leon Danger. Are you stupid? What kind of name is that”

“Leon S. Danger to be exact,” Jacobs said as he leaned in to look at the sign in that Brown was holding. 

“Oh my god,” Jefferson said painfully. He put his hands to his face. “Leon S. Danger is not a real person”

“He could be Australian,” Brown replied

“Why would the state send an Australian detective named Leon Danger to Virginia”

“Budget cuts,” Jacobs said with a half smile.

Duke sat at a table inside a room that been locked. He told officers what had happened, before they left, telling him to wait for a detective. The door opened, a man, with dirty blond hair, in black jeans, black skate shoes, a black t shirt and a dark, navy blue leather jacket came through. He pulled up a seat and sat down, dropping a file on the desk. Duke looked up and was surprised by who he saw.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Kale Collins”

“Detective Kale Collins, its detective now”

“Ok, Detective Kale....”

“Captain,” Kale interrupted.

“Kale you’re not still on the football team,”

“You can fend for yourself then,” Kale said as he started to stand up, before Duke quickly interrupted.

“Fine, Captain, Detective Kale Collins. Its been a while.”

“Two years.”

“How’s life treated you since you became the only starting, freshman quarterback to leave after just a season. John Jay University misses you very much.”

“Perfect, can’t imagine you found a better roommate than me.”

“Oh I have,” Duke laughed, before getting quiet. “He’s dead now tho, I guess I’ll need a a new one.”

“Well Duke, thats why I’m here, I wanted to...” Duke interrupted Kale,

“Lets cut the chit chat Kale, I know why you’re here, you want me to join a group of highly trained personnel with unique attributes,” he said as he leaned back and kicked his feet onto the table.

“No. Not even close. What the, why would you think..... never mind, Duke, if you want any chance of not going to prison, you need to tell me what happened.” Duke leaned in and began telling Kale what had happened. 

“....and then Joey fell into the abyss. I ran to the edge of the cave, and then just a little while later the police arrived and saved me.”

Kale looked at his notepad. Something didn’t add up, Duke was hiding something. 

“Tell me the names of everyone who went up to the manor with you again?”

“Dallas Parker, Annie MacTavish, Kat Riley, Sarah Mason, Mike Woods, Heather Garrick, Fred Shepherd, and Joey Price.”

“Eight Names? The police report says that they only found seven bodies?” Kale said confused. Duke looked at him, also confused. “Duke on the way here, I got a call from one of my friends. He said he knew you when he was in the Richmond division. Can you tell me why?”

5 years ago

Duke walked into the kitchen. An officer was sitting at the table with his father.

“Duke, please have a seat, this is Officer Jason Riley.”

“Good evening Duke,” Jason said as he reached out his hand. Duke sat down, but didn’t shake his hand.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Duke said, worried they were going to throw him in prison.

“It’s ok Duke, Jason just wanted to ask a few questions.” The 16 year old Duke wasn’t at ease.

“Where were you today Duke?”

“At my friend Joey’s house”

“How was Joey?”

“Fine, why do you care.”

Drake Parker chimed in, “Duke, just answer honestly, and it’ll all be ok”

“Joey, Joey was mad at me.” 

Jason leaned in, “Why what was wrong.”

“I, I slept with his sister”

Drake leaned backwards in his chair and cupped his hands around his face, “Jesus Duke”

“She asked me too, there was consent,”

Jason continued, “And this angered Joey?”

“Yes, but he knew I didn’t want to, but he didn’t believe me. But he got so mad, so angry. He stole my keys and drove off in my car.”

“Ok, thats what we needed to know.”

Drake still had his hands on his face. “This is perfect. Just what I needed. I have a girl who I was representing trying to blackmail me after I lost her case where she killed her mom with compound HG-23, and now this.”

Duke didn’t understand, “What, what happened.” Drake stayed quiet. Tears were going down his face. 

Jason looked back at Duke, “Son, I don’t know how to tell you this, but, Joey Price was killed in accident after he stole your car. His family is looking to press charges against you Duke.” Duke slammed his fists down on the table, screaming, and ran up to his room.

Present Day

Kale was on the desk computer. 

“Joey Price, killed after stealing friend’s car. Richmond, Virginia. Duke, what aren’t you telling me?”

Duke was lost. he didn’t understand. “Joey came with us, he was there. He.......” Kale interrupted. 

“What happened when you picked up all of your friends, and tell me EXACTLY what Joey did the entire trip,” Kale said.

Duke began thinking. “Well, before we left, Annie made me and Fred some food, we picked up Kat, and then we got Joey and we were on our way. I was on the phone with my dad and then Joey said a joke.

‘”...Ok, ok, I’ll text you when we leave. Alright love you too.” He hung up the phone. 

“Good little Christians, oh how I love it,” Duke said in a much higher pitched voice, before looking back at the empty seat.’

“After we got there, Joey just watched Fed play video games.”

‘Kat looked at him and smiled, “Everything set up ok in the cool kids room?”

“Oh yea, Fred brought is gaming console, so he’s probably gonna play  Medal of Duty all day. Joey actually wanted to just stay down there and watch him play, surprised me.”

“Oh?”

“Yea, I’m just happy to see two of my friends bonding. Any who, I’m making Christmas cookies for after dinner.” Duke walked into the kitchen.

Heather turned to Kat, “Who’s Joey?” she asked.

“I, I don’t know”’

“Then later, he asked for my keys.”

‘“Hey man, I left one of my bags in the car, can I go and grab it?” Duke said to himself randomly. Everyone in the room looked at him

“Yea sure,” He tossed his keys in the air to himself. “Make sure to lock it.”

Duke walked outside and opened the door. He grabbed a log from the log pile, started the car, and place the log onto the gas pedal, before putting the car into drive and sending it down the hill.’

“And then later, he tried to fight me, but I won,” Duke said to Kale.

“Interesting,” Kale said. Something still didn’t add up. “You saw everyone die, tell me how they died again.

Duke didn’t want to remember seeing his friends die, but he knew he had to if he wanted Kale to help him.

“Fred was first. He got lost in the snowstorm and we found his body the next day.”

‘Duke was walking. The snowstorm was picking up. He saw something in the distance. he walked towards it, and it recognized him

“Duke, where’s the entrance, we need to find it now or we’re going to freeze to death. Duke picked him up by his jacket.

“Now, its time for you to suffer.” Duke yelled as he picked Fred up and slammed his onto the ground, before he himself passed out.

“Then, Sarah died after we thought she was a zombie”

‘“...ready, one, two, three.”

They let go of each other. Duke veered left, Annie went right. Sarah tried to grab Duke. Her arm was around him. She looked him in the eyes.

“Help me, please,” she said while sobbing

“Oh just die already you ungrateful bitch”

Duke kicked her to the ground, and ran to Annie, embracing with her again. The undead Sarah screamed for only a second, as one wolf bit into her leg, while another bit her neck.’

“Then Mike, he lost the will to live.”

‘The group was walking back to the manor. Mike was with Duke.

“So, she’s really gone”

“Yea, she was ripped to shreds”

“Oh my god, I, I don’t know what to do”

Duke turned around and looked at Annie. He turned back to Mike, “I know what I would do if I lost my girl. I’d kill myself.”’

“Kat, she tried to rape me. I, I had to kill her out of self defense.”

‘“Well hello there Kat” he said in a cute voice. 

“Um, Duke, what are you doing,” she asked him. He could hear the fear coming out of her voice.

“Oh Kat, come on, we both know ever since we met that you’ve wanted to fuck me. Why not now. Come on Kat, take it all off.” He then took his jacket off.

“Duke, your stressed. Just try and fall asleep...”

“Kat, do you not want this?” He took his jeans off.

“No Duke, your one of my best friends, you mean so much to me, don’t do this.”

“Sex is one of the last things on my mind right now”. Duke took his top off, leaving only his underwear still on him

“Kat, fuck me, I don’t even need a condom”

Kat tried to scream, but Duke choking her prevented any sound from occurring. She then wrapped her hands around is throat, trying to get him to stop. She looked over at Annie. She was ready to lose consciousness. Staring at Annie, she saw her knife on her belt. With the little strength she had left, she pushed Duke of her, and reached her arm for Annie’s knife. Kat grabbed the knife and moved her arm and tried to impale Duke in his chest. Duke caught the knife, grabbed it from her, and impaled her in her own chest. Removing her clothes, he put the blanket over her and went back to sleep.’

“Heather jumped off into the abyss, Joey forced her to.

‘Duke, full out sprinting, tackled her to the ground. They both stood up. They were feet a way from a gigantic hole in the cave

“What is wrong with you,” She asked him.

“Dallas hates you with all of the passion inside of him. He loves me so much, that we’ll conceive a child together, and name him Kye. Imagine, that I suddenly died, and that you being the only person near me when I die, that he hates you even more,” he said laughing.He grabbed her hand dragging her toward the edge of the abyss.

“Don’t do it, Don’t do it, NO, NOOOOOOO!” Heather yelled. He pushed her into the abyss. Heather fell alone. She screamed for almost a full second, before a loud thump was heard. She hit the bottom. A fall that high, it definitely brought her instant death.’

“Dallas died after Joey impaled him with his axe, Annie died soon after.”

‘Duke ran out to the wall of the cave. Annie laid there. Exhausted, hungry she looked up. Duke was on his knees on the other side of the cave. There was no one there.

“Duke, what, what are you doing?”

“This is all your fault, this is because of YOU!” He turned and ran to Annie. He saw her, exhausted. He was furious. “This is because of you Kye!” He yelled again. 

“Duke, who, what, what’s going on”

“Annie, you’re hungry Annie.”

“I’m not....” He grabbed berries and forced them into her mouth. Her stomach filled with immediate pain. “Duke, this is my fault. This isn’t how I wanted this weekend to go.” She wouldn’t look him in the eyes.’

“And then finally, Joey”

‘“Duke!” Dallas yelled. 

“Hello Joey.” Duke was emotionless. Dallas began filling up with guilt and fear.

“You, you took my car.” Duke yelled, “I crashed your car. This suit, its the only thing keeping me alive. Thats because of you. You brought me pain. You made me suffer. That’s why I killed your friends. I killed your brother. I’m a new man, I am Kye.”

“No, no this isn’t you,” Dallas yelled. 

“You never cared in the first place. You let people bully me. You left me to die. Instead of worrying where I was, you just worried about that stupid girl,” Duke yelled.

“All you had to do was tell me you were going through something. I invited you up here, I wanted to you to be a part of my family,” Dallas said as pain began to fill inside of him

“All you’ve ever cared about was yourself. It took the deaths of those around you to finally realize your a piece of worthless shit,” Duke yelled back scummingly.

“I’m sorry, but this was too far. Its not too late for me to save you.” 

Duke smiled, “No, its not too late for ME to save you.” Duke ran to Dallas.’

Kale stopped writing. Duke had to still be lying. He wanted to know what was going on inside of Duke’s head.

As Duke realized what actually happened, he felt confused. He wasn’t upset about it, it was just another bad experience, thus confusing him. He reached into his jacket and grabbed Annie’s knife. “This was her knife, she....”

Kale jumped up, kicking the table and sandwiching Duke between the table and his chair. He drew his two pistols from his belt, extended his arms and aimed the at Duke. “Put. The knife. Down.” He told Duke.

“Woa woa woa, I wasn’t gonna use it, I wanted to show you.” He listened to Duke and put the knife back in his jacket. Kale dropped the table, and flipped his pistols back into their holsters. Kale sat back down.

“I’m done playing games. There was a backpack found in the manor. It had 7 pounds of HG-23 inside of it.”

“HG-23? I don’t know what that is.”

“Its a drug, causes hypnosis.”

“What?”

“Think Duke.” Duke started thinking back.

‘“What time are we leaving for the manor Duke?” Annie asked him. Duke was in her apartment with Fred.

“30 minutes.”

“Ok, I made you a sandwich.” 

“Annie I literally ate on the way here.”

“Please Duke, its a new recipe.”

“Its a san..... whatever.” He went into the kitchen and sat down. He took a bite of the sandwich. His ears started to ring. He couldn’t move a muscle. He was frozen. Annie walked over and whispered into his ear.

“Joey Price is still alive, he’s coming with us. He wants to make you suffer.”’

Duke didn’t understand. Why couldn’t he remember any of this? He thought back again.

‘The group got back into the manor after Mike revealed himself as Kye. Annie was pissed, she hated that she had gotten embarrassed in front of those morons. She went into the kitchen, grabbed her backpack and removed a brick of HG-23. She cut it into powder, placing it on the sandwich she had just made. She brought it out to Duke, who was sitting with the rest of the group. 

“Aw thanks, I haven’t eaten in days. Did you get anything to eat.”

“Nope, I’m not hungry at all.” She leaned in and whispered into Duke’s ear as he bit into the sandwich. “Kye is real. Kye needs to kill everyone in this room, except for Duke and me. He will not rest until they are all dead.”’

Duke couldn’t believe it. He loved her. She meant everything to him. Fear filled him, but then it exited. He didn’t care anymore. The small part of him that had control was able to get revenge on her by forcing her to eat the nightshade. But he still refused to accept that Annie was responsible. Duke loved Annie, and he knew he could never stop loving her, but Kye hated Annie, Kye took over and killed her. Kale leaned back in his chair

“So Duke, is there anything you would like to tell me?” There was a knock on the door. Kale got up and answered it. “Excuse me, this is a private meeting.” A woman was standing there, not too much older looking than Kale. She smiled.

“I am Mr. Parker’s lawyer”

“Um, on file his dad is his lawyer....”

“On file from 5 years ago.” She gave him a document. There it was, proclaiming officially that this woman was his lawyer.

“You got 15 minutes.” Kale walked out and shit the door. The woman went and sat down where Kale had just been sitting.

“Good afternoon Mr. Parker, my name is Iris Chambers.”

“My lawyer?”

She laughed, “I’ve come here to offer you a choice. It hasn’t leaked to the public yet that one of the group members from the McDonough Massacre was the culprit.”

“How can I trust you?” She took her phone out of her pocket and played the live news.

“A nation saddened by the disappearance of a 16 year old girl, why parents Mike and Winona Archer have not given up hope. Tragedy strikes a winter home just outside of Lynchburg. Seven have been confirmed dead, one person, not yet disclosed as to their connection with the incident, is in custody. We will be following this devoting story as further details have yet to be announced. And today’s final headline, Kurt Murray may be coming back to hockey. Why the 41 year old Pittsburgh legend may decide to dress in skates yet again.” Iris locked her phone and put it in her pocket.

“I don’t understand,” Duke said to her.

“No one knows who is in custody. Could be a witness, a victim, who knows. But what I do know, is I’m giving you a choice Duke.”

“Why? I don’t even know you.” Iris stood up from her seat, pacing around the room.

“Duke, you have brought me something that I’ve, we’ve, been looking for a long time. I can’t thank you enough for it. So I’m giving you a choice. You can either sit here and continue to be questioned. Its only a matter of time before they drug test you and connect the dots. Or, you can give up your civilian life and come work with me. You’d fit perfectly into my agency, and you will never have to worry about money, school, or prison ever again.”

Duke sat there. He was at a crossroads. But, he felt a power inside of him, it wanted to follow her and become something greater.

“Ok, I’ll take the red pill,” he said, feeling relieved. 

“Excellent choice,” Iris said. Duke stood up as she opened the door. “Follow me to the chopper.” As they turned and went down the hallway, Kale and Jefferson, came from the other side of the hallway and went into the room.

“It’s, empty. What, how,” Braddock Jefferson said, cupping his hands around his face.

“He was here 15 minutes ago. I don’t understand,” Kale said in disbelief. Intern Agent Matthews walked into to the room.

“Kale?”

“Elizabeth?”

“Kale, you let him go, why?”

“I didn’t, he, he somehow escaped,” Kale said. Jefferson grabbed hand cuffs from his belt.

“Mr. Collins, please, on your knees. You are under arrest.”

Elizabeth turned and left the room, tearing up and full of disappointment. As she left the room, Kale yelled out to her.

“Elizabeth! Elizabeth!”

Duke and Iris were walking towards the helicopter. The blades were already spinning, it was ready to take off. Iris’s phone began to ring.

“Head onto the chopper and buckle up, I’ll be there in a minute,” She told him. Duke walked up and hopped onto the helicopter. He put the shoulder buckles on, before strapping a waste belt on. He looked up and noticed a girl sitting there. She was reading a book. She seemed awfully familiar.

“Hey, I feel like I’ve seen you before,” he yelled over the sounded of the blades turning so she could hear him. She leaned forward.

“I’ve never seen you before, what’s your name,” She yelled

“Duke Parker,”

“Cool, My name is Rey. Rey Archer.”

“Nice to meet you,” he yelled. He analyzed her again.

“Have you ever met a girl named Annie? You look a lot like her,” he yelled.

“No,”

“Oh ok, I killed her.” He took out her knife from his jacket, “With this knife,”

“Cool,” she yelled back

“There’s another name you could call me,”

“What’s that,” she replied.

“Kye, My name is also, Kye,” he told her.

“Nice to meet you Kye,”

Iris was stepped onto the helicopter as the sun was setting. She buckled up and gave an ok signal to the pilot. Rey turned around to the pilot.

“Vroom vroom,” she said, as the pilot continued to take off. Iris picked her phone back up.

“Agent 43, this is Iris Chambers,” She yelled over the helicopter.

“Go ahead Iris.”

“Archer is secure, we will be back at base in a few hours.” she paused. “I found him, I finally found him,” she yelled, trembling with joy, “I finally found KLU.”

written by IRON STEEL

produced by IRON STEEL

executive producer ICECHILD

executive producer JPT

edited by LBJR

starring

DUKE PARKER

ANNIE MACTAVISH

DALLAS PARKER

KAT RILEY

with JOEY PRICE

and KALE COLLINS 

IRON STEEL PRODUCTIONS presents

in association with JT PRODUCTIONS

an IRON STEEL original story

WINTER WHUMPERLAND 

The elevator doors opened. Agent 43, dressed in a suit with a blue tie walked out, and walked up to Iris. She was also in a suit.

“Iris, good to see you”

“43, welcome back, mission successful?”

“Indeed”

“Great, the director is in the conference room. He’s ready for your next assignment.

“May I ask you something Iris? Why’d you save that Parker kid?”

“He provides skills that we are looking for. He’s a cold hearted killer, we could find him very useful,”

“What do you want me to do with him?”

“He shall be trained, and should you need extra company for a mission, he will be ready. He will need a black suit, red tie, and a request he made, a gas mask with red eyes. He wants to go by Kye,”

“Kye? What kind of stupid name is that? Sounds like Kyle, but with the L removed,”

“It’s what he insisted,” She said with a half smile. They both began walking towards the conference room, as her phone began to ring. “Go ahead in 43, I need to take this.” He walked inside and greeted the director, while Iris answered her phone.

“Go ahead Agent 16,”

“I found him, he’s in a restaurant with two of his little nerd friends.”

“Excellent, pursue,”

“I don’t know Iris, what if he says no.”

“Kendricks,” She yelled as people in the hallway were looking at her, before she got quiet. “Kendricks, you do whatever you need to do. We have Archer, we have eyes on KLU, we need our third asset.”

“I expect overtime,” Kendricks said as she hung up her phone. She kicked her feet off of the dash of her car, opened to door, and walked outside. She then walked up the steps to ‘Cleo’s’. She opened the door and was greeted by a hostess.

“How many?”

“There should be a seat already for me, the name is Cool Kids Club.”

“Ah yes, right this was miss.” The hostess took her to a booth, and grabbed her a water. Sitting on the other side of the booth, were a girl dressed in red who was closest to the window, a man with a purple t shirt, and another man in all black. The man in purple leaned forward.

“Laura Kendricks, I haven’t seen you since high school.”

“Likewise, I need you for something.”

“Needs,” he laughed. “We never really NEED anything, just a lot of wants.”

“Then tell me what you want, and in turn you can help me with what I want”

“What is it you want Laura,”

“Thats classified.”

“Laura”

“Something is coming Josh. I don’t know what, I don’t know when, but we need you. We need you and two other people who we already have.

“Interesting. Fine, if you agree to help us, I’ll come with you.”

Laura sat up with joy, “Great, how can I help .”

“There’s a man running around, causing trouble. I can’t tell you all of the details, but he needs to be stopped. He calls himself, The Grey Mantis.”

“Ok, Grey Mantis, coolio,” She said, trying to hide her confusion. Josh turned to the girl on his right, who was closest to the window.

“This is Red Machine, don’t mess with her, or she’ll mess you up.” Laura waved, Red Machine remained emotionless. “To my right, Malec, don’t get him to talk or you will never get him to stop talking.” Malec began grinning.

“And let me guess, you have a cool little nickname too Josh,” 

“My name....is Ragestorm.”

KALE COLLINS WILL RETURN IN “Silver Staple” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Make sure you reach chapter 12 before reading this)
> 
> Hey Everyone!!!!
> 
> If you got to this point I hope you really enjoyed the story. I’d like to say that this was my first ever short story and I absolutely loved writing it so much. Yes the ending may be out there and brings you characters you have never heard of, but these are stems for my upcoming stories. If you enjoyed this, you will LOVE The Kluniverse, which will bring all of these characters back, including Duke Parker/Kye (will have his own story in the near future). I can’t thank everyone enough of how awesome this was, and I love all of you for coming on my journey. If you loved this, go read Icechild, someone who inspired me to write stories. If you think my work is good, you will find their work 1000000000x more amazing. Anywho, chapter 1 of Silver Staple (my next story), will be posted in just a few weeks (aiming for February 5th but don’t quote me on that haha), but I will see you all then!!!!!


End file.
